Happy Tuesday my friends!
I hope everyone had a good Monday night! We had quite the snow storm roll through Omaha, and it wasn’t the pretty kind of snow unfortunately. The good part about it was I was able to get a small work out in with shoveling the snow. AJ and I have a long, skinny driveway and it takes awhile to shovel. So we did it together, and I think I shoveled maybe a fifth of the snow and was pooped! AJ had to do the rest because I’m a wimp and clearly my muscles aren’t as strong as I thought. That’s okay though, thankfully AJ is quite the strong one 🙂
I wanted to put up a quick post about table settings and how you can style one yourself. I get a lot of comments that people haven’t tried table settings because they just don’t know where to start. Well I’m hear to tell you, table settings can be a lot easier than you think!
So where to start?
I am a lover for neutrals and I always start with more of a neutral color plate or charger plate for my bottom piece. The bottom pieces that I have had in the past are white, tan, and silver. Very neutral colors that can be used year round. Another important thing about this plate, I chose something more simple. My most recent table scape has a white plate, and honestly you will probably see this plate on my table just about year round. Why? Because it’s simple and it’s fresh! I found my base plates at Home Goods, and you can still find these ones from time to time. I tagged the exact plate here from Amazon, but they are much more expensive online than at Home Goods. They were about $5.00 a plate and they are super nice!
I’ve attached several plates/chargers that are great neutrals to start with:
Wooden Charger at TJ Maxx Online
Galvanized Charger With Gold Welding – Hearth & Hand™ with Magnolia
White Ceramic Made In Portugal (my plates)
Antique Scalloped Ivory Charger Plate
So once you decide on a base plate, you can move onto the middle plate (or your top plate if only doing two plates). This is the one where you can either have some fun with it, change up the color, or keep it simple. This middle plate is the plate that isn’t always necessary. Sometimes my middle plate is my top plate, but it really just depends what I want to do and what my budget looks like. I’ve really been focusing on buying more plain or neutral colors for all of my plates, so you might not see any wild plates for awhile! I just like to play it safe, and I couldn’t help myself when I saw these black stoneware plates from Hearth and Hand. They are gorgeous and I pretty much went full force with the Hearth and Hand collection.
Now if you want to, you can certainly add in a third plate. This cute little black polka plate is my first “third plate” I’ve added, and for good reason! It’s a part of the Rae Dunn collection, and I have become such a crazy collector. I of course can never find pieces when I’m searching now though. I used to see this stuff all the time when I would be at Home Goods and never thought twice. Now I’m slightly regretting that!
The third plate again is not a necessity. You can still have a beautiful table setting without having three plates. I’ve been adding table settings to our table for a little over a year now and just built up to a third plate on one of my table settings. Keep in mind this plate should be a lot smaller compared to the other plates. Here is a view of the plates without the napkin on top.
The last piece I always add to my table settings are the napkins and napkin rings. I don’t bother actually putting the silverware on my table setting, but maybe some time for photos I will! Don’t let that fool you though, I wouldn’t keep silverware out on the table the whole time. I prefer to have the napkins laid out nicely on the plates or to have them rolled up in a napkin ring. I’ve seen lots of different designs and styles, but I just like to go simple! And to be honest, it’s much easier.
The napkins I chose for my recent table scape were another from the Hearth and Hand collection, and I’ve discussed them a little more in one of my previous posts here. They really are gorgeous and so simple! I love how they are a brighter white napkin, yet have the little cross stitching. I then found these rope-like napkin rings and they are the perfect touch year round! I haven’t even changed them out since I bought them. These were a find at Home Goods and I honestly haven’t seen them since I bought them in November last year. Home Goods has a lot of napkin rings from time to time, and I would definitely recommend searching there before anywhere else. They are pretty and great for the budget.
I hope this post makes you feel more prepared to go out and start creating your own table setting! It’s honestly so much simpler if you just take it in stages and remember to keep some neutral colors. Neutral colors will be able to be used throughout the year, which helps cut down on budget when you are wanting a table setting.
Please let me know if there are any topics you would like me to touch on in future posts, or if you have any questions for me! I also love hearing how you style your home, so feel free to leave your stories about your home below!
With Love,
Kristen
PS – Here’s another touch of Rae Dunn that got added to the table scape!